Yea yea....the blood is not in your hands....we know. But why not charge them d least you can? Someone will b admitted for one day and d doctor will be callin 50k bill. Is that fair? When you see a patient and d people that accompanied him/her then u can guess how rich or poor they are. If u observe they're not well to do, then charge exactly what u'll need to treat them without thinking of gains. Cos wen d bill is so high, the person wont even know where to start from.
You can make ur money off the rich ones....nobody will blame u for that

'God will reward you' is the recurrent theme with Nigerians. You'll hear stuff like 'the god wey give you this one go give you another one'. Between man and god,honestly speaking,before god and man..blah..blah..blah. But as soon as they get what they want their true colors reveal themselves. Nigerians can be very dishonest. Very frustrating i swear down!

Chief same situation am facing. Cannot pay my staff promptly yet patients keep pleading. If I show you our debtors list you will cry for me. Yet bills keep coming every month from various agencies and groups affiliated with the govt. Am currently planning on closing down the hospital.

So painful. U re right doctor.

A really pathetic situation.

Health insurance is the only way out .But really Nigerians don,t value health. We have corrupt government officials killing millions every day by stealing money meant for upgrade of facilities .We export humans to India for medical treatment and they pay hospital bills and hotel fees and feeding including transportation that benefits the economy of that country and they take away foreign exchange from Nigeria.Dudu

it is well,

I can understand Doc. you have tried according to your story- you have been stretched to your wits end but still, I can still stomach seeing that bleeding woman go, if I could help because conscience will almost kill me thinking about it....what even made you to write this is your conscience. It pricks but truly, as you said, you could help. God saw your heart and understands. It is well!

beautycrush24:
Yea yea....the blood is not in your hands....we know. But why not charge them d least you can? Someone will b admitted for one day and d doctor will be callin 50k bill. Is that fair? When you see a patient and d people that accompanied him/her then u can guess how rich or poor they are. If u observe they're not well to do, then charge exactly what u'll need to treat them without thinking of gains. Cos wen d bill is so high, the person wont even know where to start from.
You can make ur money off the rich ones....nobody will blame u for that

So they should be given fake medication?.if he gives the lowest grades of the drugs the patient will die 12 times over.it is against the ethics of the profession to cheat ,if he does that and they discover ,you will not defend him.

I can understand Doc. You have tried according to your story- you have been stretched to your wits end but still, in your shoes, I wouldn't still be able to stomach seeing that bleeding woman go especially if I there is something I could still do to help not minding whether they will keep to their financial obligations because conscience will almost kill me thinking about it....seeing the relatives crying will melt my already hardened resolve. I know that what even made you to write this is your conscience. It pricks but truly, as you said, you couldn't help. God saw your heart and understands. It is well!

/
OP: It is not your problem. Blame the people and the system. Nigerians move around with the notion that they can outsmart anyone. It is surprising that even the ones thst have good jobs would spend money as if it is going out of existence. There are no savings for emergency. Not my portion, they would say until the emergency happens. We hear stories of hospitals holding patients hostage and the public will rain curses on the hospital.

Dasuki, FFK, Metu looted so much that their families can afford to travel to anywhere in the world for medical care. Arrest any of them and the same people who would be the victims of the embezzlement would come for their defense. So what can one do? Let nature and circumstances continue to weed out the unfit. It is best to remain indifferent.
/

sofadj:

Well i have decided to change the modus operandi of my institution. The previous one has not benefitted anybody. Henceforth if any one comes to my emergency room without a dime, I will not attend to .If such a person dies, the blood is not on my hands, its on the hands of those who have received treatment in the past and failed to pay afterwards.

If I were you, I would rather quit being a Doctor than do the bolded. If you choose to place money before a life, you are in violation of the oath you swore to protect life. What I particularly find disgusting is that you try to justify your actions on the premise that a few patients in the past refused to pay you, you are now making your future patients vicariously liable for the handiwork of your previous patients. It makes no sense mate, just choose a different career path.

ericlove4all:
Chief same situation am facing. Cannot pay my staff promptly yet patients keep pleading. If I show you our debtors list you will cry for me. Yet bills keep coming every month from various agencies and groups affiliated with the govt. Am currently planning on closing down the hospital.

closing down is never the best option

God bless your heart of gold

beautycrush24:
Yea yea....the blood is not in your hands....we know. But why not charge them d least you can? Someone will b admitted for one day and d doctor will be callin 50k bill. Is that fair? When you see a patient and d people that accompanied him/her then u can guess how rich or poor they are. If u observe they're not well to do, then charge exactly what u'll need to treat them without thinking of gains. Cos wen d bill is so high, the person wont even know where to start from.
You can make ur money off the rich ones....nobody will blame u for that

/
At the end of the month, the hospital will have to pay their staff as well as procure medications and materials for others. Don't forget that hospital is not a charity organization.
\

My dear colleague its d same story every where. Most patients & their relatives refuse to pay after u've suffered to treat them without full payment. I did emergency C.S. on a friends wife since february last year and saved the life of both the woman & her baby boy for only N 120,000, which covers drugs, theatre fee, surgeon fee, bed fee, medical & nursing care, blood transfused. Despite the guy being very rich with flashy cars & child dedication ceremony of over 1.5 million, he has refused on his wicked wife's advice not to offset his balance of 40K. If a Dr declines to treat on credit, wailers & end time nairalanders will come to rant against us.

If I own a private clinic, these are what I will do to ensure efficiency and prevent unnecessary loss of lives. .1) I will specialize (I wont be treating every sickness or attending to every issues. 2.)I will make it mandatory for every one that registered with my clinic to contribute every month towards emergency.

Oh God, may I always enjoy your divine health......amen

eyah! So you are just learning nigerians love naira more than their lives. Pele!

ericlove4all:
Chief same situation am facing. Cannot pay my staff promptly yet patients keep pleading. If I show you our debtors list you will cry for me. Yet bills keep coming every month from various agencies and groups affiliated with the govt. Am currently planning on closing down the hospital.

Do not close down pls, its something most of us face. What keeps one going is the thought of the genuine folks who actually appreciate one's services, no matter how small. For now you may want to take some more austere measures while thinking of ways to raise up the hospital income.

Case of a hapless and helpless masses in a bastardized country

sofadj:
I own a hospital in Southwest- (not Osun state Nigeria ...lol). I currently have about 17 patients on my ward each of whom I have admitted at several occasions through emergency. None of these patients has paid upto 30% of his/her bill. Some of them have stayed upto 7 weeks on the ward. I admitted and attended to them based on the fact that their conditions were life-threatening as at the time they came. I made their bill known to them - and they signed before they were treated. But there is a common trend, as soon as they felt relief and became stable they pleaded for their bills to be reduced - this I vehemently refused.

About 4 weeks ago a woman was rushed in with Eclampsia having just convulsed while pregnant and she was unconscious. I promptly took her straight to the theatre without collecting a dime though i had informed the relatives of the charges - #120,000 for her operation and medications. They signed and I carried out the surgery succesfully. Mother and baby survived. Within the following 6-days they paid a total sum of #12,000 and they began pleading to go home for the child's christening ceremony. I looked at them with disdain. Till now, they have only managed to pay a total sum of #14,000.

Another man who was managed for strangulated hernia has only paid 20,000 out of 75,000 bill. And the list goes on. Their failure to pay has made it difficult for the hospital to replace consumables and medications needed to manage other people's condition.
In the early hours of today 1:30am, a woman was rushed into the hospital following delivery at the referrral center. Blood had refused to stop gushing out. I did a quick assesment and realised she would need more materials than the hospital pharmacy currently had in store. I could have my staff get from a nearby pharmacy too. However, the husband said he had no money on him and so did the numerous relatives that accompanied. It was indeed a familiar pattern. I decided to let them go. I referred her to a government hospital. Ofcourse they pleaded for me to help but there was nothing I could do. Few minutes after they left - just few metres from my hospital gate, she collapsed. She had lost a lot of blood. I rushed there and rigorously tried resuscitating her right there outside the hospital 2am early morning, but all efforts proved abortive. A young woman of 28years had just died after having her first baby. Screams, wails, cries ensued. I felt bad - this is not why i became a doctor. But her blood is not on my hands.

Her blood is on the hands and heads of all the patients on the ward who can afford to pay but refused to - on the grounds that - "What will they do?. Her blood is on the hands and heads of the government officials past and present who have made it difficult and impossible for workers to get paid for their work. But the government officials are not the target of this my narrat. It is aimed at those who take hospital healthcare and medical doctors for granted. Those (including myself) who emphasise that doctors should not put money first before treating emergency conditions. In emergency cases, relatives would go to any length through any struggle to get money. As soon as the situation becomes calm, they relax and then they refuse to pay.

Last year a distant relative of mine was delivered of her baby via Caesearian section (in a hospital in Lagos- not mine). They were billed #180,000 which they accepted before the operation. After the surgery, her husband called me and asked how much I charge and i told him. He then began pleading with the management of the said hospital to review his bill. They declined. The husband being who he is, paid #120,000 and absconded with his wife and his newly born son. How he did this, I do not know, but i know that at the christening ceremony a week later, he had two cows slaughtered to celebrate the birth of his first son.

Many times we complain of doctors who ask for charges before treating patients but no one has ever bothered to ask the doctors why they do? Doctors are humans too, we need to pay bills. This is our trade, our profession, our means of livelihood. We have needs too. We can not go to the market place with the ID showing that we're doctors and hope to get food items on credit. We need to pay our children's school fees, we need clothes , shelter etc just as you. Everywhere in the world healthcare is expensive, both services and materials are exepensive. Well we understand that you may not have money. The government should find a way. The government should find a way/policy that ensures that we get our money back after we have rendered our service. In the UK there is the National Health Scheme, in the United states they have health insurance schemes too in addition to Medicare, Medicaid. In Nigeria we have the barely effective, poorly regulated and massively corrupt National Health Insurance Scheme.

Well i have decided to change the modus operandi of my institution. The previous one has not benefitted anybody. Henceforth if any one comes to my emergency room without a dime. I will not attend to. If such a person dies, the blood is not on my hands, its on the hands of those who have received treatment in the past and failed to pay afterwards.

thanks poster, Nigeria matter no be for here, I can imagine, I have have seen a lot of peeps come crying for your help when they are in trouble, once you bail them out, probably with your last card and they get out of the tight situation, to collect your money na fight, in fact you're not getting that money back if you're not ready to fight. When you see people that refuse to help, don't call them had hearted. They have been hurt over and over again, you don't have to be dr to experience this.
Now on the health side. Some pregnant women will never attend even a day of pre- natal, most time they are the ones you see in emergencies at a hospital they never registered in, if they doctor washes his hands off her, peeps will be calling no him wicked. Never experienced all so called doctors cruelty. Had my baby at an average private hospital, no deposit was asked, nothing till a day after yet they gave excellent service.

DPricey1:
Speechless

me2.....

dexpotter:
You have a right judgement. But should the latter be punished for the sins of those that came before them? What if u were not a doc n ur wife or mother fall into similar situation n u are not dere 2 hlp financially @ dat moment??

Brov, from the write-up, you should easily deduce he had the welfare of the 'latter' @ heart...he simply did not at the moment have in stock drugs and other whatchamacallits she needed to stabilize her. From the previous experiences, even I(as philantropic as I claim to be), couldn't take money from my purse to care for the patient knowing what it strongly would end up in.

claremont:


If I were you, I would rather quit being a Doctor than do the bolded.

Go and seize his certificate if he doesn't quit. #120k for an unbooked CS is a reasonable charge. An emergency for that matter! They won't pay but thereafter celebrate with 2cows haba!

I know that things are hard and times are tough but we should have a conscience when dealing with doctors. I saw a mallam being carried on a fellow man's back on my way to see my doctor some years ago. It was some minutes later they started looking for the man. He had an accident and they treated him and were awaiting the settlement of his bill only for his relations to sneak him out of the hospital.

Last 2 yrs a Lady delivered without bringing a pin to the hospital, not even a wrapper. In fact the baby was wrapped in d blue hospital bedspread meant for babies beds. I had to give them one of my baby's wear when I could not stand it. They were trying to outsmart the father of the girl in this case. The mother pretended she didn't know her daughter of about 28 was pregnant and didn't buy a pin to buttress her stand. Nigerians, fear them

julybaba:
If I own a private clinic, these are what I will do to ensure efficiency and prevent unnecessary loss of lives. .1) I will specialize (I wont be treating every sickness or attending to every issues. 2.)I will make it mandatory for every one that registered with my clinic to contribute every month towards emergency.

1. True - but still doesn't work much in Nigeria. Will you say because you're a Gynaecologist, you won't treat the diabetes mellitus patient who's rushed to your emergency department by relatives wearing designers but not a single naira to pay?

2. Won't work either, with the 'God forbid' spirit that reigns supreme among Nigerians. Telling them to plan for emergency, in their ears, sounds like praying for emergencies.

skylowlow:
I feel you Dr Kabiru

you know him?

claremont:


If I were you, I would rather quit being a Doctor than do the bolded. If you choose to place money before a life, you are in violation of the oath you swore to protect life. What I particularly find disgusting is that you try to justify your actions on the premise that a few patients in the past refused to pay you, you are now making your future patients vicariously liable for the handiwork of your previous patients. It makes no sense mate, just choose a different career path.

Don't try to take the moral high ground here. Would you subsidise the cost of every treatment going forward? His decision is surely at odds with his humane side but there comes a time when one just has to put his foot down and let the chips fall where they may.

pathetic!!!

idris4r83:
If accumulating wealth is what you are looking for after studying medicine then u are in for a ride. A medical degree can only make u sufficient but not rich.

You're d type of patient this doctor is talking about...where in his statement did he mention rich? He said he has needs to attend to and workers to pay hence patients should endeavour to pay you're here talking rich...it's your exact type of person that will abscond or beat up a doctor after having sworn heaven and earth to pay up initially... No wahala docs don get una code already.

I once saw a patient who was in obstructed labour and would require emergency C/S to save the child and mother's life...even though d husband worked in MTN he said it's not the money dats d problem but he has already planned d money for naming cerrmony! Imagine!!! A child dat was not even out yet.

People always prefer to spend money on useless things but will grow "intelligence" on useful things.... I've stopped pitying patients a long time ago wen a patient we cured ended up calling touts to beat us up and paid only 2thousand naira for hospital bills...

dexpotter:
You have a right judgement. But should the latter be punished for the sins of those that came before them? What if u were not a doc n ur wife or mother fall into similar situation n u are not dere 2 hlp financially @ dat moment??

I don't understand your point, please clarify..



If my relative was admitted to hospital for emergency treatment and i signed an undertaking to pay the bill after being fully informed of the cost, I will pay. Simple

If however I do not have the money being demanded, I will tell them what I can pay, pay it immediately as a sign of good faith and leave the rest to the discretion of the management and God to decide.


A lot of Nigerians are simply callous and fraudulent people, they never want to pay whether it is for health, food, education or so

Many of the people here who think the doctor did wrong, are probably chronic debtors themselves so they see no wrong in their behaviour but God will judge them.